CRUISERS BEWARE!! Cutbacks are happening even in the cruise industry. This cruise was less than glamorous. I have never been on such a low quality cruise in my life. We cruised Norwegian as recent as last year and at that time it was still nice. This year its like a different company has taken over. Here is how our cruise went: We boarded the ship, and no welcome aboard drink. No biggie, we were sure this was just a small change. So we went for lunch in the only dining available, the buffet. How about this? No trays. Here you are in a cafeteria style line. You have a salad, a plate of food and a drink, and no tray. This is absolutely ridiculous. They said they are trying to cut back on some small things. What is a person supposed to do? Balance it on their head? OK, we moved on. We decided to try the free style More
dining. Well this is where it went down hill. The tables were set with minimal silverware, no flower, no candle. Well no biggie the food will still be great. Surprise again. The menus are horrible. Almost every evening was a list of unappealing meals. There are a few appetizers, one soup and one salad choice. Your choice is do you want it or not? Also, there is no more dessert tray to choose from.

This is the cruise companys way of getting you to spend more money and eat at the special dining which has a fee per person. They feed you bad food and try to squeeze more money from you by forcing you to pay. We were so hungry that we thought we would try the specialty dining. Well guess again! You couldnt get a reservation. So now we had to eat really bad food. Even the buffet had strange eastern food most of the time. The desserts looked great but no taste, only high calories. Oh yea and how about this, no more fruit punch or lemonade, only ice tea. But if you wish, you can buy coke for the week at $42.00 a person. (crazy, isnt it?) Alcohol is at a very high price too. You can get a drink for $4.50, but its served in a juice glass. The decent size ones are $8.50. Coke is $1.75 a can and tasted like water. It looked like a coke can but&. No taste at all.

The least they could do is post the menus for the week so you could decide if you want to try making reservations elsewhere.

One of our stops was a private island. Here they even botched a picnic lunch. Although the dogs and hamburgers were OK, they were served on stale rolls. And the fruit salad must have been made up well in advance, it was extremely slimy.

The breakfast wasnt bad. Most of the food was traditional and eat up in the morning, there wasnt much to look forward to after that.

There is less help in the dining rooms also. The poor waiters have to run their legs off for several tables with little help. Then the Danish waitress just stands around and doesnt replenish her supply until its about empty.

On the positive side: " I must admit though, there was a pasta bar and it was excellent, (thank God). We loaded up on Carbs every day for lunch. (or starve).

" The staterooms are the nicest Ive seen on the cruise ships. They are spacious and very nicely equipped.

" The pools were nice and 4 hot tubs were available.

" The fantail now has a canopy covering it so it was really nice for sitting.

Most people go to enjoy fine dining and you wont get it here.

If this is how all Norwegian is heading dont even consider sailing with them try Princess, Celebrity, or Royal Caribbean. Less